In Black and White
by lettucebabies
Summary: Disconinued
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

I got off the bus and started to pick off the spitballs that were stuck on my shirt. 8th grade kids are so immature. My house was by a cemetery, and I often did my homework there before going home. Of course history was my best subject, because I sort of had help… but I won't tell anyone because I might get in trouble.

I quickly finished my homework and started to walk home. The cemetery was a cool place to hang out, but some of the spirits there were very nosy. There are some things that you don't want a ghost to know. I was almost out of the cemetery when I felt something cold brush up against me. I looked over to find my friend, Florence, who was a daughter of Persephone. She had grayish hair, but I bet it would have been blonde if she was alive and not see-through.

"Hey!" I said, glad to see her. She was one of my best friends, even though she was dead. She had lived during World War I, and had died of the flu. It's weird, because even though she is dead, she still looks slightly ill. And it's not because she is a ghost. I guess when you die your ghost assumes the image of you when you died. Most people wouldn't know that though, because most people can't see ghosts. It's a blessing from my mother… Or a curse. I'm not sure.

"It's good to see you," Florence stated. "You know it is already 4 pm, right?"

"It is?" I said. I needed to get home and cook dinner for Dad. He had a serious case of amnesia, and could never remember anything. I would tell him something one day, but he would forget it the next. Thank goodness he hadn't forgotten how to walk. Or go to the bathroom. That would have been really inconvenient, not to mention awkward. He usually just wandered around the house. One time I caught him eating a crayon, which was very disturbing at the time since I was only 10, but now I find it sort of funny.

Dad wasn't always like that. The amnesia started when I was about 8. My mom had to leave me when I was only about four month old, because she had other duties to carry out, and so I was on my own. At first I didn't trust him home alone when I was at school, but he has never done anything too horrific. The worst was when I found my cat shaved bald. After that I gave her away. There was just no trusting the two of them together. Of course Dad couldn't work anymore, but my mom always sent me money every month (may be the reason the U.S. has such a bad economy right now. The money isn't exactly real, but it's not counterfeit either). It is barely enough to get by each month, but it's better than nothing.

Sometimes Dad goes into trances where he remembers his past. It's weird, because he knows that he is under amnesia. Usually when this happens he'll come and find me and tell me something important that I will need to know. The sentences usually started with "I don't have much time, but…", like he knows how long he will be normal. It makes me think that someone is making him forget things, and then sometimes they forget to do it.

"Can I come with you?" Florence asked. She usually asked this, and I usually said yes. Ghosts had to have permission to go somewhere they haven't gone before. It was good to have someone else around the house besides me and Dad, too. Florence didn't really say much, but that's because ghosts don't think like humans do. Most can remember things from their past, although some don't. Those are the ones that are really annoying, because they want information, and so they will always ask you really stupid questions, like what color your shoes are. Then they will keep telling you what color they are, like you didn't already know. I like to call them the Captain Obvious Ghosts.

We walked to my house (well, Florence floated and I walked), which was only on the other side of the cemetery. When we came into my house, I found Dad laying on the couch in the living room, cuddling a pillow. Florence started laughing, but I just rolled my eyes. This was the fourth time this week that he had done this. Sometimes he went through phases like this where he would do something weird over and over for a while. Once it was whittling soap bars. That was the most annoying one, because he walked around the house while doing it, and there was soap _everywhere_. I promised the person who was taking away Dad's memory that if I ever got to them, they would be dead. Like no-ghost dead. The no-being-at-all kind of dead. DEAD. Some of the things that the amnesia made Dad do were just plain annoying. And unnecessary. Give me a break, person! I will name you Bob. Bob the Evil. Very good. Sorry, I'm getting off topic. It has to do with being a demigod, I think. I'm not quite sure because Dad told me during one of his trances, but he talks super fast during them.

I got out a pot from the Cupboard of Messy. Our kitchen is very small, and so we have to cram all of our pots, pans, cutting boards and such into one cupboard. The only way that they would all fit is if we jammed everything inside of each other them crammed it into the Cupboard. So to take one thing out, you had to take everything else out too. Another thing to add to my list of inconvenience. Which I haven't started yet, but I'm seriously starting to think about it. I like lists. They keep me organized. I'm not very smart, and I am barely passing my classes at school, but the lists help me a lot. I have a hard time concentrating in class, and whenever the teacher calls on me, I don't know what she is talking about. But I try to take notes in lists (although I always forget). Thankfully, there is this ghost that haunts the school, for reasons I don't know, and I always get him to tell me the answers for the tests. It may be cheating, but I don't think of it like that because I'm the only one who can do it. So it's not cheating, because no one else can do it. They don't even know about it. It does not fall under the definition of cheating. So there!

Anyways, I got some macaroni and cheese powder out of my cupboard, and put some water in the pot to boil. Then Florence and I headed to my room. Our house was very small, as I said, and we couldn't afford another house. So we only had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a tiny living room, and a ridiculously small kitchen. But, considering I spent most of my free time in the cemetery and I had no friends besides ghosts, it didn't bother me.

My room didn't have much furnishings. I only had a bed dresser. It also had a closet, but there want much in their because my cotton candy machine took up most of the space. Cotton candy was my favorite food, but it was hard to find, so I saved up money by not eating as much food and wearing clothes that were too small for a year and bought one. The sugar wasn't expensive, so about every month I dragged out the machine and made a bunch. Sometimes Dad tells me I am what I eat. I think that it means he thinks I look like cotton candy, which I agree with. You may think that looking like cotton is weird, but it is true. My hair is very thin, light, and almost a white color. If I don't keep it in a braid, it will float around like I'm underwater. Even in my braid, it still floats a bit. It had to do with being the daughter of the ghost goddess. My skin is white, which makes me look very ghost-like and a bit creepy. I think that is the reason people don't hang around me. Or it could be that I have two different colored eyes. my left is a very light blue and my right is a dark brown. The only two people (live probably) who don't think my appearance is creepy are Dad and this kid Nico. I wont even start to talk about him. Basically I hate him and if I talk anymore about him, I wont stop until I've said every bad thing about him I could.

Florence floated over to my window, opened it, and started to tidy the little window-flower planter I had. She had insisted that I put one there to brighten the place up. I only agreed when she told me she told me that she would take care of it. I didn't doubt her, because she was the daughter of Persephone and all, but now she wanted to come to my place every day to garden. At least she hasn't put up more of them.

Meanwhile, I made my bed and got out a duster to dust. Our house always had tons of dust in it and the problem was that Dad was allergic to it. So I had to run a duster over every surface daily. I ran around the house, dusting everything (I was very good at this, because I had done it about 2,000 times. No joke.), then poured some pasta into the boiling water. Florence came in the kitchen as I was mixing the cheese powder with milk, grabbed a napkin and stuck the corner into the top of her dress. Then she grabbed a knife and fork out of the utensil drawer, sat down the table with a wacky grin on her face, her arms flat on the table, and the fork and knife sticking straight up. I had to laugh. Florence ways always trying to make me laugh, like she was a clown. When Dad heard me laugh, he came into the kitchen and asked if it was dinner.

"Yup," I told him, for I had just finished stirring the cheese into the pasta. I scooped some out onto his plate, and then some onto mine.

Usually he didn't talk much during dinner, but today he said, "How was school?"

I was pretty surprised at this question, because most of the time he thinks I am home all day, so I said, "Um, yeah. Good. I had a big test today, but I think I did pretty well."

"That's good," he told me, then continued, "There is something going on in the other world." The 'other world' was what Dad referred to the Olympian world during his trances. Obviously Dad was in a trance, but there was something weird about this one. He wasn't all panicky and trying to tell me something important like he usually is. This time he was more relaxed, as if he didn't have anything to tell me. But he did, because he said, "You have to go and help. I will be fine here." I didn't have much time to think about it, because after he said that, I blacked out.

**Well, that was a long chapter. I am not sure if the others will be this long.**

**Geese! Or as some uninteresting people say, 'Jeez'. That was a cliff hanger! I'm so proud of myself!**

**This story rums parallel to SominumAstrum's Gem of the Sea. It shows what is happening in the mortal world at the time. If you have not read Gem of the Sea, read it **_**now**_**. (Right after you REVIEW!)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! It helps make me a better writer!**


	2. Chapter 2

When I regained my consciousness, I was in a dark room. It smelled like sage, which was pretty normal for me since my whole house smelled like it. I hung it from all of my dream catchers. It's supposed to ward off demons. When I was little I had tons of creepy dreams. They were mostly about ghosts and cemeteries and that kind of supernatural stuff. Which is now very un-supernatural.

Anyways, the room smelled like sage. There was only one light, at the far end of it. On the floor was what looked like a tatami mat. I was sitting in a chair. It was close to the ground, sort of like a pillow. A dark figure appeared in front of me. It got closer, and I started to panic. I tried to get out of the chair, but it seemed I was glued to it. Then the figure in front of me spoke.

"Don't panic, little one. I don't have much time, but I have to warn you: The world will be turned upside down. Your life as you know it will be destroyed. But you can help restore peace. You will go on a great journey, but you will not be alone. Six strangers will accompany you, at one point. Be careful." Then the figure faded out of sight. The room brightened until I had to close my eyes. When I opened them back up, I was sprawled out on m kitchen floor, with Florence hovering over me, looking worried.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think," I told her. "How long was I out?"

"Not that long. You just fell out of your chair, and then you opened your eyes."

I looked up at Dad. I wasn't sure if he was still in his trance, so I asked, "Dad?"

"Please hold," he responded. This was one of the things that he said when he felt too busy to talk. At least he was out of his trance. I usually liked when he went through a trance, but his last one was just weird. I was glad he was normal again, or at least normal to me. If I had told a random person my Dad was a crazy amnesiac, they would probably say 'That's not normal', so whatever.

"Blake?" Florence said, still looking very worried. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I think," I told her. "I just had a very weird vision."

"A vision?" Florence asked. "What happened?"

"I was in a dark room and a woman came up to me and told me that I was going to go on a dangerous quest with six strangers because Olympus was going to go into chaos," I told her in one breath.

"Wow. So that's what your Dad was talking about with you going on a quest and all."

"Yeah, but I don't know where I am supposed to be going. And I don't want to leave Dad home all alone. Being gone for school is bad enough."

"He seemed to pretty sure the he would be okay before."

"He was in a trance then," I explained, "Maybe he thought that he would be okay, or he wanted me to go on the quest and not worry about him. I don't know."

"Well, I have to get back to my grave. I'll leave you to think about that."

"Okay," I told her as she floated away. Then I told Dad to brush his teeth and go to bed.

After he was taken care of, I went outside to think things out. I always thought better in starlight. I wanted to go on the quest, because I had never gone on one, since you usually had to be at Camp Half-Blood to receive one. But I didn't want to leave Dad all alone, and I defiantly didn't want to have to work with six strangers. They would probably think that I was some creep and never talk to me. And they would have all probably been at Camp Half-Blood and think I knew nothing. First off, all the demigod ghosts told me all about Camp and everything else a demigod would need to know, and second, Dad had told me about my the Olympians before all the others on the quest found out.

I came to the conclusion that I would find out more about the quest before I decided to go. I wanted to know who was going on the quest, like who their godly parent was. At least Nico wasn't going. The lady in my vision said strangers would accompany me, and Nico defiantly wasn't a stranger.

I also wanted to know where I was supposed to go. Florence had told me that when she was chosen to go on a quest, the prophecy had told her where she was supposed to go. But I didn't have a prophecy.

I thought for a bit more, but couldn't come up with any solutions, so I went inside and got ready for bed. When I got in my room, I noticed that the sage form one of my dream catchers was gone. I walked to the kitchen to get more, but on the way I tripped over something. I couldn't see very well, because I had turned out all of the lights, but when I crouched down it looked like it was a bottle of something. I carried it to the kitchen and turned on the light. The bottle was little and made of glass, like a medicine bottle. It had a rolled up piece of paper in it. I tried to open it up, but it was tightly sealed with a cork. I wanted to just leave it, but curiosity got the better to me and I smashed the bottle up against the counter. I unrolled the paper, which was brittle and yellowing. It read:

Dear Tomas,

I am sorry to leave you at a time like this, but I have an important mission right now. Here are my instructions for the little one:

When she is ten, take her out of school. Home school her, but never tell her about her heritage. If she asks, tell her yours, but

Not my side. Tell her I never told you. If she finds out about me, she will want to do dangerous thing and will be killed. Being a minor

demigod isn't a dangerous as being a major one, but if she tries anything she will be found, and that will be the end of her. After she is

thirteen keep her in the house as much as possible. Don't let her use a cellular phone or the Internet.

I hope to see you again.

Your love,

Mellinoe

My hand shook as I put down the paper. Obviously the instructions were very important, but Dad never had the chance to tell me because of his amnesia. I figured I was probably in danger right now. I not only did I use a cell phone and the Internet, but I also used my powers to talk to ghosts. Not to mention that I was thinking about going on a quest.

After I thought that I really freaked out. I had not done anything in that letter, and now would probably die.

Then I calmed down. I was 14 right now, and I hadn't died yet. Plus I could follow the instructions in the letter so that "they" wouldn't find me. But would I go to Camp Half-Blood? I sort of resented my idea of it. I had always thought of Camp kids as stuck-up snobs who think they know everything. But Florence wasn't like that. And, even though I hated Nico, he wasn't like that either. So would I? I still couldn't decide, but I figured that I wouldn't have to any time soon since I was probably going to go on the quest.

I folded up the note real small, and grabbed some more sage out of the cupboard. Which was neater than the Cupboard. Then I went to my room, hung up the sage on the dream catchers, tucked the note at the bottom of my sock drawer, and went to bed.

oooo

When I woke up, it was really cold. My first thought was that there was a ghost nest to me, but when I looked, there were none. I got up and walked around my house, trying to find the source of all of the cold air, but couldn't find anything. Then I thought that it must be cold outside, which is un-seasonal since it was the beginning of June, but I went outside to check anyways, thinking that it was the only place the chill could come from. To my surprise, it was quite warm out. So where was the coldness coming from?

I figured that it might be Dad doing something, so I went in search of him. It turned out he was sleeping in his bed. Nothing weird. I went back to my bed and tried to fall asleep, because I must have been dreaming, but I couldn't. Was I trapped in a nightmare forever?

If I was, I decided to make the best of it. I went into my kitchen and found my pan in the cupboard, which was easy because it was in the front. If this was a nightmare, it wasn't very scary. Actually, it was quite nice. I heated it up, and then got out the container of flour. And an egg. And milk and brown sugar and baking powder and a couple of measuring tools and vegetable oil and salt. Then I made pancakes. I loved pancakes, almost as much as I loved cotton candy, but I never made it. I don't know why. After I couldn't eat any more, I cleaned up my mess, which was big. The syrup sort-of exploded, and the flour decided to be bad and get all over. But cleaning up was fun. I usually don't like cleaning, but I felt all high because of the enormous amount of syrup I ate, and because I felt all funny because it was a weird dream.

After the kitchen was sparkly again, I brought out my cotton candy machine and made a whole bunch of it. I mostly ate it all, but kept a little for later. Then I went outside and walked to the cemetery to see Florence. I wonder what she would say about my nightmare predicament. I found her grave, which was, not surprisingly, where it always was. It was granite, with her name carved in it in fancy letters. I knocked on it, and waited. It usually took awhile to wake the spirits from their rest. Finally, after a strenuous minute of twiddling my thumbs, she popped out.

'Hey, what's up?" she said.

"I'm in a funny dream," I said. "I woke up this morning and the house was really cold, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from."

"So you think you are in a dream?" Florence asked, amused. "That's funny, because you aren't dreaming."

"WHAT! I wasted all of that flour for nothing?" I exclaimed. I tried to conserve flour, because periodically Dad asked for cookies, which was his favorite food. He didn't know that cookies were his favorite foods, but he would get cravings for cookies, and so I always had to have ingredients ready. If he didn't get them, he would feel all sad and then I would feel really bad. Partly because I made him sad and partly because that was one of the things about his past that he could still sort of remember, even though he didn't know that he remembered it, because he couldn't remember his past. If that makes sense… which it doesn't.

"So I'm not in a dream?" I asked.

"No," Florence replied. "But that cold wind business is funny. You should try to figure it out. It may be a clue to your quest."

"Your right. It could be some kind of message from the gods trying to tell me to go on the quest or something. But I think I'm going to go on the quest anyways, even if the gods don't say anything. Then, maybe I could visit Camp. Or something."

Or something, probably. I didn't know why I had said the last part, but I was probably going to end up at Camp one way or another. Either because of the letter, which was freaking me out, or because the other kids from Camp will insist that I have to go to Camp because it's "safe". Which brings us back to the letter.

**I got this chappy back up, after i deleted the story. But I found it. **

**Anyways, PLEASE REVIEW!**

**DISCLAIMER:**

**Brought to you by Kermit the Frog (even though it doesn't sound like Kermit. He was told to say this by his boss [me!])**

**"Do you really think that MinimusAstrum owns PJO? If you do, you are sadly misled. Also, Minimus is not by boss, and by saying this, I am disclaiming myself. *walks into background of studio* What kind of crap was that?"**


	3. Chapter 3

Following Florence's advice, I set out to see if I could figure out The Case of the Cold Air. Or whatever you would like to call it. I checked all around the wall of my house, trying to feel anything cold. No luck. Then I went inside. I didn't feel anything cold inside either, until I realized that my house wasn't cold anymore. Then I got the shivers. What was making everything weird? I mean, there is me passing out and my vision, there was Dad's weird trance, and there was the cold air. I thought maybe Bob was doing it, but who was Bob, anyways? He was the person deleting all of Dad's memories, but could he really be doing all of the other stuff too? What if he was making me go on the quest so that Dad would be alone and then he would kill him? And then he could kill me and make it look like it was a tragic death on the quest because of something. I was really freaked out for like the fourth time since I got off the bus yesterday, which is saying something. I usually keep my cool and stuff, because how much more freaky can it get than seeing ghosts? Obviously a lot. So I went to check on Dad, to make sure he was okay. He was still sleeping in his bed, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't dead yet. I wasn't very optimistic about me and him surviving, because if Bob wanted to kill us, he probably could. Which wouldn't be all that bad, because then we could still be together in the Underworld. Or would we? What if Bob just made us evaporate, spirit, soul, and all? So the question was what should I do? I doubted that I could keep Dad safe any longer, with the way things were going, but I couldn't go on the quest if that meant endangering both of us more than we already were. But what if the quest was real, not just a set-up for death, and the whole world really was in danger. Then I would be risking everyone's life by not going. I figured, after a while of pacing around my house, the cemetery, and my yard, that I should probably go on the quest. Even if it was just a set up, I wouldn't be in anymore danger that I was already. If I didn't go on the quest, Bob would just kill me anyways, so what did I have to lose? I guess my life, but I was going to lose that no matter what, so it didn't matter.

It was after noon by the time I made my decision, so I went to go wake Dad up and make some sandwiches for lunch. I actually only made one, though, because I was still digesting my pancake spree. I cleaned up, and Dad watched TV while I dusted and then took a nap. Worrying made you tired. I woke up when it was dark out, and smelled pizza. Why did it smell like pizza? After some investigating of my kitchen (actually, it took two seconds to figure out) I found that Dad had ordered pizza.

"Is it good?" he asked me with a wacky grin on his face.

"Umm, yeah, it's great!" I said. "How did you know the pizza parlor's number?"

"I memorized when we went out on a walk last week. Remember we passed the place? Turns out the don't do deliveries, but I convinced them it would be worth their while"

"What did you give them?" I asked, hoping he didn't pay them 100 bucks for a pizza. He tilted his head toward the living room, and I looked in that direction. "You gave them our carpet?" I cried, appalled at what Dad had done.

"Yup," he stated, pleased at his brilliance.

"Okay," I told him. "Time to go to sleep." I said, to keep him out of any trouble and to keep me from freaking out on him. What was the use anyways, if he would forget it the next day?

"What are you to tell me what to do? You're smaller than me."

"Go now," I told him, mad that he was acting so out of control. Thankfully he obeyed, and got up from the table. Then I headed out to the graveyard to tell Florence what Dad did. Even though I was mad that Dad gave away our carpet, it was pretty I got to the graveyard, it was unusually quiet. I knocked on Florence's grave, but I heard no answer. I knocked the waited awhile more, but still nothing. Weird, I thought. Then I heard a loud crack. I looked behind me, and standing behind me was Nico. He looked pretty mad. His face was quite red, and his eyes looked a little bloodshot.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, irritated. "None of your business!" He said, his voice catching in the middle. Wait, I thought. Was Nico crying? I didn't know what to do or say, because seeing your nemesis crying is a bit awkward and shocking.

"Just leave me alone. Go home or something," Nico said after awhile. Fine by me, because I detest being within a mile of him, let alone a yard. I walked home slowly though, thinking about the disappearance of the ghosts and Nico being so... there wasn't a word for it. Nico was _. When I was out of the graveyard, I heard Nico make a grunt of frustration, like 'AAARRRGGHHHMMMPPP!" He was defiantly angry. Then I stopped. Nico came to the cemetery to summon his ancient family members who were buried here and talk to them. But the ghosts are gone. Florence defiantly wouldn't just leave on me, and I could usually feel the presence of other spirits. Tonight I felt nothing. Then I heard Nico yell, "What the h&%! Where are you?" Although I resented the thought, and even more the action, I knew I had to go back and tell Nico that the ghosts were gone. Before he tore up the cemetery in frustration.

I walked back, hesitant but quick, and said, "Umm... Nico, the ghosts are gone."

"What do you mean? How can they be gone?" He said looking up at me with sheer anger.

"They just are. They disappeared."

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM?" Nico asked, enraged, although it was more of a command then a question.

"I didn't do anything with them! I came here and they weren't here. Why don't you figure it out? After all," I added, angry now at him blaming me for everything, "you _are_ the Ghost King." He looked down at his feet for a second, then said, "Oh, this is bad."

"What's bad?" I asked, confused.

"The gods are fighting. Didn't you hear that?"

"Already?" I said. The vision-lady told me that Olympus was going to fall into chaos, but I didn't know it would happen so quickly. "Why are they fighting?"

"It's all Poseidon's fault, really" Nico said. "He had two kids while the pact was in effect." I looked at him, confused, because I had no idea what the pact was. He must have noticed, or something, because he added, "The one that said that the Big Three couldn't have any children because of the Great Prophecy. Poseidon had Percy and Ula."

"Ula?" I asked. "Yeah she just came to camp and was immediately sent on a quest. Figures. All of the Zeus and Poseidon kids get to go on quests, but not the Hades kids..." Nico broke off and looked at his feet again and made a little squeaking sound, and when he looked back up, his face was wet. "I have to go," he told me, as if he wanted me to hug him or some crap like that.

"Fine by me," I told him, then started walking back up the hill toward my house. The whole way up I didn't hear any cracking sounds that would signal that Nico had left, so when I got back to my house, I looked back into the cemetery, and sure enough, he was still there, standing exactly where he was when I left. Drat.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I figured that I had better go on the quest. If the gods were fighting already, then it defiantly was bad. And real. No Bob trying to set me up. I hoped. Anyways, the only problem that I had was that I didn't know where to go. I knew I had to leave soon, like tomorrow, but where in heck was I supposed to go? I fell asleep quickly, but I awoke in the middle of the night by a loud crack. Thinking that something had possessed Nico to come back and appear in my house, I got up and looked around. He wasn't in the living room or kitchen, and I wasn't about to look in the bathroom, so I checked my dad's room. Nico wasn't there, but neither was Dad. I figured Dad woke up to watch TV, but he wasn't there when I checked the living room again. Then I got worried. I scouted out our whole house, but no luck. I went outside, wandered down the street, and eventually started searching the cemetery. All of the ghosts were still gone, which gave me no comfort. I looked in all the nooks and crannies, but Dad was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't imagine where he had gone. Then I remembered the noise that woke me up. Was it possible that Nico kidnapped him? I didn't like Nico at all, but I couldn't imagine that he would do something like that. It could have been Bob the Evil since he was tired of just making my dad forget everything. Whoever it was, I didn't think that I would find him. I pretty much broke down. Why was my entire world falling apart? It wasn't fair. I sat down on Florence's gravestone, which I had conveniently stopped by, and cried until dawn, then fell asleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I woke up around noon. At first I didn't know where I was, but as I looked around everything came back to me. My dad missing, the gods fighting, the ghosts vanishing. Somewhere, in the rational part of my mind, I knew I had to get help. I had to go on the quest, but I didn't know where to go or what to do. I needed a prophecy. And for that I needed the Oracle, so I had to find a way to New York. I figured I couldn't delay, so going by airplane would be best. The thought of flying in to Zeus's domain while the Big Three were angry made me nervous, but I knew I had to do it. The only issue was the fact that I had next to know money.

I knew there was a pawn shop on the main road that went by the cemetery, so I set to work. I first got all of our small decorations and stuff, minus the dream catchers, and put them in a box and walked down to the shop. It was a dusty place, and almost too run-down to be functional. A man, probably about 50, came out of a back room and greeted me. I put the items on the counter and he gave me a price. It wasn't very much, but I really needed the money, so I said, "It's a deal."

"Wait," the man said. "Aren't you too young to be doing this?"

"Listen," I told him, playing out something I had heard on TV from our 'fun day' in history class, "Do you want the stuff or not?"

"Okay," he said, apparently frustrated, but desperate. "Hand it over." We swapped the stuff in the box for the money, And I told him, "I'll be back."

"Great!" he said. I knew I was probably breaking the law, but I broke it in a lot of other way besides this, so I wasn't really concerned. I headed back to my house and cleaned most of it out, including the furniture and the carpet. I took my cotton candy machine even though I didn't want to sell it. The man at the shop got suspicious when I started bringing in furniture, which I must say took awhile to get there, but he still paid me the money for it. By the time I was done, it was evening, but I had enough money to get me to the Big Apple. I packed up some clothes, my toothbrush and toothpaste, a brush, ponytails, my dream catchers, and a bunch of other travel necessities. Then I called my school and told the secretary that I was Dad and that my daughter would be absent for the rest of the school year, which was only a week, because I developed the flu. They didn't have a problem with it, and I locked up the house and went on my way to the bus station, thinking that I probably wouldn't make it back home. Not that there was much of a house to go to anymore.

I caught a bus that would take me to the airport, and sat beside another girl about my age. She was absently looking out the window and didn't acknowledge me, so all I could tell was that she was tall and had a massive amount of red curls all over her head. I got out my cheap MP3 player and put it on shuffle, but it kept going back to Don't Stop Believing by Journey. After awhile I turned it off and put it away. Then the girl looked at me and smiled.

"Having trouble there?" she asked me.

"Umm... yeah," I told her. Something was really off about her, though I couldn't tell what. She stuck out her hand and said, "I'm Susa." When my hand touched hers to shake it, it was freezing. I'm not talking someone with circulation problems, I'm talking cold like _death. _I had felt that before, but the hand didn't just pass though me like it normally did.

"Whoa," I said, surprised. "You're a ghost!"

"Yeah!" Susa said energetically.

"But I thought all the ghosts vanished." I said.

"They did," Susa replied. "Except for me. I'm to take you to the dream world."

"What?" I said, "No, I have to go to Camp Half Blood and go on a quest!"

"This is your quest! Well, it's not technically a quest, but it's close enough for us to call it one," Susa said, returning her gaze to the window. "Calm down, we are almost there."

Suddenly everything got really swirly and all I could make out was two huge black figures in front of me.

**DUN DUN DUN! ****IF YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE, AT LEAST GO AND CHECK OUT **_**GEM OF THE SEA**_** BY SOMNIUMASTRUM!**

**Susa makes her first appearance after her death! If you don't know who Susa is, read SomniumAstrum's ****Gem of the Sea****. She is a really good writer, by BFF, and her story is totally epic. My story, ****Flower Of Sleep ****by SpiritusAstrum, and ****Alexandria the Great**** by NoxAstrum are all parallel to it, so if you read all of them you will get way more information on what is happening at this time. **

**Also, Nico just had a big fight with the main character in Flower Of Sleep, so that is why he is so grumpy. (I think he is always grumpy anyways, but he is especially grumpy now.)**

**Review! Please! I need it! Please!**

**Today's Disclaimer:**

_**(Brought to you by the person who is stalking you right now)**_

**Stalker: Minimus does not own PJO, any of her friend's stories, or Susa, although she would like to. She also does not own a pawn shop (that's illegal, I think..) or anything else you recognize from real life. By the way, you're out of milk. **

**Me: Umm... thanks, and get out of my house before I call the police.**

**Again, REVIEW!**

**PLEASE!**

**And read the other stories I mentioned above! **

**Post Scriptum (This is what P.S. is, it translates to "written after" in Latin): Next disclaimer will be brought to you by my sock monkey :)**


	4. Chapter 4

We appeared in front of two giant gates with a, one very black, and the other a yellowish white. "Come on!" Susa said as she pushed the whitish gate open, grunting a little. I was hesitant but I figured that this gate was probably safer than the black one, and there was nowhere else to go but through the gates; behind me was nothingness that stretched on forever and took a purple-pinkish hue. I followed Susa through the gate and realized that the area around me was split into two halves. The area that Susa and I had entered was sort of normal looking, except for the funny animals and plants. There was a giant meadow that was filled with mostly poppies in front of us but I could see here and there some fuzzy purple flower on a stick. It looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The other area, which was separated from the one I was in now by some kind a wavy plastic-wrap looking thing. The area was very dark looking, and had a giant castle with ominous spires sticking out of it in all angles. It was sort of swampy, and had no visible plant life except for this green slime stuff that was everywhere.

We proceeded across the meadow and headed toward a girl who was standing on a cement platform. She was wearing a brown fedora (a detective hat) that was pulled down so far that I couldn't even see her chin. Her hair was blonde, a bit darker than mine, but very long with uneven ends. It looked like she had cut it herself.

We walked up to her, and she said, "Oh! Yea! I was beginning to think you didn't find here!" She was unusually cheerful, and I couldn't figure out why. She also had worded that sentence really weird, but I had figured she just got her words mixed up.

"We're supposed to meet you?" I asked. "Are you going to help us on our quest?

"We? Who is we? I only see you?" Lacey said, looking around for another person. I was wondering what she was doing until I remembered she couldn't see Susa.

"Oh, Susa's a ghost, you can't see her," I explained quickly.

"You can see _GHOSTS_?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, it is one of my powers, since my mom is the goddess of ghosts… Well, it's my only power. Are you going to take me somewhere?" I asked again, wondering why we were just standing here socializing (something I almost never did due to the fact that my only friend is a ghost). I was supposed to be on a quest to say the world.

Lacey looked around for a second with her eyes all bugged-out, probably trying to see Susa, then said, "Come on! We have to go to the castle!"

"Umm, what castle?" I asked, taking my turn looking around for something not visible.

"It's over the mountains!" She told me, singing it like the song _Over the Rainbow_ that Dorothy sang in The Wizard of OZ.

"What! That will take forever! It's impossible to get over those in any less than two days!" I said, while Lacey's face grew angry. As soon as I was done, she started shouting at me.

"Nothing is impossible! If you would just let me tell you how we will get across… But _no,_ you think that it _has_ to be impossible!" She screamed while waving her arms around dramatically. I wasn't sure what I had said that made her so mad at me. Then she sat down on the platform and cried. I wasn't sure what to do. I had never had to deal with anyone in this state. After all, ghosts don't really cry. Through her sobs Lacey managed to choke out, "I'm sorry. We are supposed to be working together, and the first thing I do is freak out." She looked up at me, recovered from outburst completely (which I find amazing, because the pause was about a second), and said, "I've never been on a quest before."

"Me either," I admitted. "But we have to get a move on. Where is that castle you were talking about?" We had to get started. I was afraid if we loitered here any longer we might fail. I had taken long enough to decide to go, and I felt guilty.

"Over the mountains!" Lacey sang again. "Come on! We'll take the elevator!"

"What elevator?" I asked, getting more confused by the minute. I had no idea what was going on, what I was supposed to be doing, or where I was, and I didn't like it.

"Hurry up so we can deploy!" Lacey said excitedly like a little kid going to Disney World, while beckoning me off the cement platform; she had already leapt off. I hopped down, then Lacey took off her hat, which had all but fallen off her head when she threw her tantrum, and threw it into the center of the platform. The hat instantly started to morph, growing wider and taller, becoming a box-like figure. A crack formed along the front forming a door to the inside, and it continued to morph until it looked like one of those phone booths that they have at the sides of streets in cities. Once it was done she looked at me and smiled. "This will be fun!" she told me, before climbing on the platform and opening the door.

"Welcome to the elevator! We shall have a great ride, or I'll eat my hat!" she announced like a tour guide. I didn't like the looks of this 'elevator', mainly because all I could think of was the telephone booth that Harry and Mr. Weasley (A/N: I have no idea if I spelled this right…) took to the Ministry of Magic for Harry's trial in Harry Potter. But I had no other idea how to get to the castle, and that was the only indication of what I should be doing or where I should go. Castle or bust.

The inside of the booth (or hat) looked exactly like your average Joe telephone booth, except that everything was fuzzy and brown. Yeah, it was weird. I was thinking this would be the only time I would see something this bizarre. I was wrong, for Lacey had all kinds of bizarre things to show me.

Lacey punched in a _ton_ of random numbers (she actually looked away, closed her eyes, and pushed the numbers with both index fingers), then picked up the telephone and said in very official sounding voice, "Yes, I am calling for Fred. Transportation to the castle. Six monkey slap-slap." She hung up the phone, then the 'elevator' jerked sideways and I fell to the floor. The elevator stopped as suddenly as it had started, and I looked up at Lacey. She smiled at me, and then asked, "Why did your legs fall?"

I had no idea what she meant, but she assured me, "It's a safer rider down there, so don't worry about waking them up until we are done."

We weren't done? I didn't have much time to worry, because a instant later the elevator started again. It jolted upward, then changed direction so we were going horizontal. Then the elevator changed so suddenly that Lacey fell down on top of me. She had been expertly balancing the jolts until then.

"Aw man!" Lacey said. "I almost made it!"

"Made what?" I asked, hoping that the ride was almost done.

"To the disco!" Lacey exclaimed like it was common knowledge. Then the music started. Lacey started to disco dance. I grimaced; she was poking me in my stomach. "Here we go!" Lacey shouted as the elevator/hat/phone booth jerked up. Suddenly the elevator stopped.

"Are we done? I asked, hoping she would say yes.

To my relief she answered, "Yep-oroony!" She jumped up, elbowing me in the leg, and opened the door. I was blinded by the bright light. There had only been one tiny light in the elevator, above the phone. I groaned and struggled up, stiff from being crumpled on the floor.

What I saw outside amazed me. There was a giant castle, half made out of some black gemstone, and the other half marble with purple decorations scattered along the walls. The structure itself, aside from the weird decor, was strange. There looked to be at least 20 additions on it, all in contrasting style. Either the architect who made this place was mad (likely), or the people who owned it were mad (very likely) and kept getting different additions on it.

Lacey started looking around the outside of the phone booth/hat, muttering something about something moving.

"What are you looking for?" I asked her, half curious and half impatient.

"The tag. It keeps moving," Lacey replied. "Ah-ha! Found you, little taggie!" The tag was at the bottom of the hat in the front. Lacey yanked on it, and the hat started to shrivel up into reality-size. I expected it to fall into the tunnel that we had shot out of, but the hat rested on solid ground.

"Where'd the tunnel go?" I asked, anticipating a bizarre reply.

"Ég veit það ekki," she replied. Defiantly bizarre.

"Which means?"

"I don't know. It's Icelandic."

"No, it's Lacey's-bizarre-language. Come on, we have to get to the castle." I said, growing frustrated. Lacey was making it extremely hard to do my quest. I couldn't fail, because if I did the world would end and such. But I had no idea what to do, and it seemed like Lacey's idea of the quest was to mess around with hats and play hide and seek with the tunnel.

Lacey became all serious. "You don't like me very much, do you?" she asked. Great, now she thought I hated her. It's not that I hated her, but she _was_ annoying.

Lacey became very depressed looking. "Well, I guess we should get to the castle." I sort of felt sorry for her. She looked really crestfallen or something-I wasn't that good at reading emotions.

She led me into the castle and up a giant spiral staircase. It opened up into a big hallway with a bunch of doors on both sides. She walked up to one and opened it, motioning for me to go inside. "This will be your room," she informed me, then paused thoughtfully. "Does that ghost, Saucy, need a room to? Or does she just roam around the halls like a scary one."

A ghost? She must have been referring to Susa. But where did she go? The last time I remembered seeing her was when I first saw Lacey. She must have disappeared. Ghosts will sometimes do that, if you forget about them. "I don't know where she went," I told Lacey, mad that I didn't sound smarter. Ghosts were my of expertise.

"Oh, well if you find your lost ghost I guess she can stay in your room." It surprised me that Lacey wasn't fazed by the idea of a ghost running around and staying in people's rooms. If it wasn't a bizarre person like Lacey, they would have probably been freaked out.

Lacey left me to rest awhile and told me that she would come and get me for supper. I had forgotten that I did not eat lunch. I hadn't been hungry until then, probably because I wasn't thinking about it. Now I was starving. Then she said something about the rooms changing and that I probably shouldn't come out of my room because I might get lost. I had no idea what she was talking about, and disregarded her advise. Then I went to explore.

I was kind of interested in what kind of place this castle was. Susa said something about being in the Dreamworld. I had no idea what that meant, but I was sure that if this was a dream then I would go get a check-up when I woke up. This kind of stuff isn't normal. If my unconscious mind was making this up I had something seriously wrong with me.

So I walked down the hallway, and the first strange thing I noticed was that everything was either that black gemstone or marble. The second thing was that the walls were _covered_ with all kinds of purple decorations. The third was that all of the fabric I saw was made out of black corduroy. The fourth was that there were little planters of poppy plants all over. Hanging on the walls, sitting on the floor, and even suspended from the ceiling. Maybe everyone here was tripping on opiates. That would defiantly explain _some_ things. But not why _I_ was witnessing this stuff. Unless someone drugged me and I didn't know. Or it was a really messed-up dream.

Anyways, I walked down the hallway and found the giant staircase that Lacey and I had walked up before. Although I could have sworn it had been closer to my room before. I climbed the stairs and came to a giant art gallery. Some of the pictures were of ordinary things, like a family eating a meal together or some kids playing on a playground. Others looked like they came out of some twisted book. There were huge stacks of pancakes with bright green worms crawling through it, a pink and blue chicken wearing a sweater that said, "Moo Cow", and a giant cathedral infested with mushrooms. Still were others that were just swirls of paint. Those reminded me of my dream catchers. I'm not sure why. **(A/N: I've just realized that I haven't said anything about her bag. It bugs me when characters have items that they have with them, but the story never mentions it until something important happens to it. Or they don't mention it at all, and you are thinking, "What happened to it?" So here is what happened to Blake's bag: she fell on it in the 'elevator' and something pointy poked her in her butt, she carried it up to her room, then left it on the bed. Just to clarify that the bag is still there, so when I mention it you don't say, "What bag? Since when did she have a bag?" Sorry, now I'm rambling...)**

I must have stood in that room for hours. There paintings were so captivating, like they were painted in HD or something to make them look cool. And there were just so many. I love art. Unless it is really bad, I can stare at it for the longest time and not get bored. Which is weird, because usually I can't stand to do the same thing for two minutes.

Finally I peeled myself away from the gallery, and went through a door on the other side of the room. I almost fell over when I saw what was on the other side of the door. At least 50 feet below me stretched a giant trampoline. It's a good thing I didn't fall over; I probably would've broken my neck. I was about to turn back when I felt like actually jumping down onto the trampoline. I wasn't afraid of heights or anything, but I didn't like to try new things. But I felt like jumping down onto the trampoline. So I did.

It was really fun. I free-fell for a moment, and let out and an ear-piercing scream. I didn't know I was capable of that. Then I hit the trampoline. It stretched pretty far down, cushioning my fall, then pushed me back up into the air. I flew back up, past the door to the gallery, and screamed again, bracing for the crash of me hitting the ceiling. It didn't come. I slowed down, then plummeted towards the ground again. The ceiling must have been pretty high. I bounced some more (maybe more than just some more). Then I started to wonder how I would get off of the trampoline. Every time I bounced it flung me up higher. If I didn't figure out how to get off, or at least bounce less, I actually _would _crash through the roof.

My mind flashed back to science class. One day we had been learning about gravity and free falling and that stuff. I'm not the best student, but I could recall that our teacher had talked about how to have the perfect landing. Something about spreading out the impact area.

On the next bounce I waved my arms trying to flip over so my back was facing the ground. Hopefully it would create more air resistance to slow me down too. I didn't really work, and I landed on my side. The trampoline was so stretchy that it didn't even hurt my arm. I tried to turn again, and managed to get somewhat on my back. I couldn't tell until a few more bounces, but I was actually losing altitude. It took a long time to stop bouncing, but eventually I did. Go physics!

The trampoline was even bigger than I thought it was. It was really high up too, so when it stretched it didn't touch the ground. Lucky for me, there was a ladder up to the side, giving me an escape route.

When I started to walk on the floor it felt really hard. If you've ever been on a trampoline you know the feeling-like the floor should stretch the same way the trampoline did. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how hungry I was. It was probably time for supper, and I had to get back to my room to meet Lacey. There was only one problem: I couldn't come back the way I came. I looked around, hoping for a way out. The only thing I saw on the wall was a black corduroy curtain. I walked over and pulled it aside. I was covering a doorway that lead into a room that was filled with poppies. I walked into it and looked around. There was a man sitting in a throne at one side of the room. Of course, the throne was made out of that black gemstone and marble. And, of course, he was wearing black corduroy. He was also wearing this Japanese looking t-shirt with a poppy on it. He looked pretty young too, maybe only 25.

When he saw me he chuckled, which was sort of creepy. He had this really deep voice that practically shook the room.

"So there you are! You missed supper, by the way, but no matter. You should go see Lacey, she has herself all worked up because she lost you. We will have to find a map for you, I think Lacey gave her's to Ula and Zeke, but I'm sure there is one somewhere."

The man kept blabbering, but all I could think of was that I needed to tell him about my quest. I didn't know why, but this man had to know.

"Um," I said. Nice way to start a very important statement. "I'm on a quest to..." I suddenly realized that this man didn't know about the gods or goddesses.

"Oh, yes, down to business. But first you should eat." He got up from his chair and led me out of the room. This guy knew about Olympus? Or did he think I was on a quest to invent a quest to invent a new type of bologna? I was really beginning to question reality of all of this. .

The room that we came into was a banquet hall. Or what looked to be one. This castle was odd. There was enough room to seat 1,000 people, no lie. No one was in it though, except for me and the man. It occurred to me that I didn't know what his name was. I wasn't sure if he had told me or not, so I asked, "What was your name again?" The fail-proof way to find out what someone's name is. If you just asked them what their name was, but they all ready told you, your would seem like you didn't care or were stupid or something.

The man chucked. I hate when people chuckle. "Phantasos," he replied, like his name was totally normal. But it wasn't. Figures.

Then it dawned on me. This man was a god! Florence had been explaining to me all of the gods and goddesses, like I would remember them all. I didn't. But I do remember her talking about the three gods of the Dreamworld. Phantasos was the god of inanimate objects. That would explain some things about the castle.

I just stared at him, processing all of the information. He chucked again. If this guy kept chuckling I would have to resort to something drastic. I _hate_ chuckling. Then he snapped his fingers and a plate of pancakes and cotton candy appeared on the table in front of me.

"How did you..."

"I'm the god of inanimate objects," he said, gloating over his superb power.

"...know I like pancakes and cotton candy?" I said, finishing my sentence.

"Oh, you just look like a cotton candy-pancakes kind of person," he replied, looking slightly embarrassed. I sat down and ate, while Phantasos looked over my shoulder. This guy was seriously starting to creep me out.

"Do you need a glass of waters too?" he asked after I was half-way done with my food.

"Some _what_?" I asked.

"A glass of waters."

"Water," I corrected him. "And yes."

"Oh, yes. I forgot that you refer to liquids as a singular noun." He snapped his fingers and a glass of water appeared.

"Thanks." I drained the glass (I was thirsty), and then turned around on the bench I was sitting on. "So what of my quest?" I asked.

"First you need to get some rest. Then Lacey will come and show you to the Council Room."

"Okay. Where's my room?" I asked, not wanting to on another crazy trampoline adventure.

"Oh, a map. You need a map..." Phantasos said. He closed his eyes in deep thought, then a pamphlet appeared in front of me. The front had a big title that said, "The Happiest Place On Earth". No, it wasn't a map of Disney World. I opened it to find a giant directory of the castle. As I looked at it a room disappeared. In its place was a giant staircase, which led down to a whole new floor. "That's a new one, so be good to it," Phantasos told me. "Your room is right here," he said, pointing to a room on the second floor. I thanked him for the map, then went to my room and got a shower in the adjacent bathroom. I hung my dream catchers on the wall above my bed (the wall was littered with nails and thumbtacks. Whoever had stayed in this room before had hung up a lot of things.) I got my PJ's out of my bag and put them on,then pulled down the sheets on the bed and slipped inside. The bed was quite comfy. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep, despite all the thoughts floating around in my head.

**SORRY! This took way too long to put up. Like five months. At least I'm not as bad as Christopher Paolini (dont know if I spelled that right) Did you hear the fourth Eragon Book comes out in November? I'm so excited! Anyways, if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, please tell me so I can fix them. I proofread it, but I tend to overlook things. **

**Review! You will get a virtual something! I'm actually trying to write a real book, so anything you say about my writting will help. And then when i publish it, I will track you down and give a free copy, promise. So review!**

**Today's disclaimer is brought to you by Luna Lovegood. **

**Luna: Minimus deos not own Harry Potter, anything else, or anything else that exsists in real life. And review, because i said so. Even if you don't believe I did. **

**(that was a bit boring) Me:Thanks Luna. **

**PS (post Scriptum): Lacey is very much like Luna, just to let you know. Funny thing is Somnium came up with her and she hasn't read Harry Potter. **

**Luna: She hasn't? How can she! It is so awesome!**

**Me: I agree. I will end this now because it is getting too lengthy. Plese review! **


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